carb consumption question - too few?

[Aways2Go]

Would it matter if I have WAY UNDER 20 carbs in a day? Is there any noticeable effect?

Some days I am just not as hungry as others - today being such a day.
So far I have had close to half of what calories I will probably eat for the day (not that I count calories, necessarily, I just know from logging things in to fitday what is likely to happen), and have only had a couple or three carbs (granted I have not eaten much of anything in the way of veggies/salad items yet today - I just was not hungry enough to stuff much else in to what little bit I have eaten!).

I intend to eat a salad and some broccoli w/cheese with dinner, but I am thinking it likely won't go over (or much over) 10 carbs for the day, with dang near all of them coming from the salad/veggies and maybe 1 or 2 for cheese.

Is there any reason at all this should concern me? I know for one day it wouldn't matter, but if that became a regular pattern for extended induction, THEN would it matter?

Just curious - normally I have to work at it a little bit to stay around 20, but since it occurred today that I will likely end up with half that, it just got me to thinking about it.

[JulieB]

I wouldn't worry about the carb count being low, as long as you get your 3 cups of veggies in.

The more nutritious veggies have higher carbs than lettuce, etc, so it would be good to eat some of those. I often eat my veggies first, then meat, etc if I'm still hungry

[imagood1]

When I'm not real hungry I make sure to eat my 1 cup from the "Other" veggie list and a salad. Pumpkin seems to be something that really helps on these days.

[Aways2Go]

Thanks for the input. Not that this is likely to happen to me all that often, LOL, but it just made me curious if there were any notable negative effects of too few carbs, assuming salad and veggies were eaten.

I like a HUGE variety of vegetables, so I can't imagine it being a question very often (bok choy being one of my favorites, though, and about as low as it goes in the veggie carb category).

In fact, I spent a weekend once (snowy weekend, not too much to ponder about, LOL!) casually trying to think of vegetables I truly did not like and would not eat... other than not being crazy about brussel sprouts (although I will eat them in small portions) and not too fond of raw swiss chard, the only vegetable I could really come up with was oriental bitter melon (spiny cucumber looking thing) - which I did actually eat a plate of a few times, but I can't say I enjoyed it too much, LOL! Even at that, I might not select it on purpose at the farmer's market (or grow it in my garden), but if it was on the menu at a dinner party I would still eat it. It was fairly bitter, but certainly not inedible (at least the way I have eaten it - sauteed, I think with some bread crumbs or something but I can't recall now).

Looking forward to the latter OWL stages and being able to enjoy more (variety and quantity) veggies - jicama, parsnips, winter squashes, baked sweet potatoes (OWL or maintenance?), gingered carrots, jerusalem artichokes, turnips, sauteed beets over beet tops (maybe not until maintenance - I haven't even checked yet because that is a ways off, but I'm sure the beets are sugary, though the tops probably not so much), leeks, kohlrabi, peas, etc. Eating some of these now (the allowed ones), but not at the quantities I was used to (the bulk of my diet) - but it's always good to have things to look forward to! An excellent reward as the weight comes off.

Now that got me started - gotta go look up my recipe for mediterranean style kale (chopped, raw) and see if it is induction friendly!

[liv]

If you like veggies a lot you can move to rung one. You can stay there as long as you want.

[mitzimarie]

Originally Posted by Aways2Go

Looking forward to the latter OWL stages and being able to enjoy more (variety and quantity) veggies - jicama, parsnips, winter squashes, baked sweet potatoes (OWL or maintenance?), gingered carrots, jerusalem artichokes, turnips, sauteed beets over beet tops (maybe not until maintenance - I haven't even checked yet because that is a ways off, but I'm sure the beets are sugary, though the tops probably not so much), leeks, kohlrabi, peas, etc. Eating some of these now (the allowed ones), but not at the quantities I was used to (the bulk of my diet) - but it's always good to have things to look forward to! An excellent reward as the weight comes off.

You don't need to wait till the later stages of OWL to enjoy many of the veggies you listed... jicama, turnips, beet greens, leeks, and kohlrabi are all Induction veggies. In fact, jicama is classified as a "Salad" veggie, so you can eat more than a cup of it.

I agree with Liv - I like the idea of moving to Rung 1 (more veggies) soon after Induction. One of the most important parts of OWL is finding your CCLL (Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing). This is the highest number of carbs you can eat without stopping the weight loss or throwing your blood sugar out of whack. You can do that in Rung 1, if you wish. In fact, I actually favored that idea. In OWL, I didn't want to add new foods and up the number of carbs in the same week... if your losses slow, how do you know whether it was the type of carb, or the number of carbs that was the culprit? Non-starchy veggies are relatively safe for most people. By upping my number of veggie carbs each week, I was able to come up with a number. I found that I could lose just as much weight eating 35 net carbs, as I could at 20g net carbs. So now, I was ready to start moving up the other rungs with a higher number of carbs to "spend". I didn't need to leave out veggies, just to free up carbs to try other things with. Since I knew that I could lose at 35g, if my losses did stop, I new that it was the type of carb that was the problem.

[Aways2Go]

I probably will move to rung one in the very near future to expand my veggie intake a little.

Mainly what is keeping me from doing so right now is my desire to get to my next mini-goal (which is only ten pounds away) as quickly as possible.

For one, I would greatly enjoy knowing it is the least I have weighed in 14 years
I never did yo-yo with my weight much... slow steady climb up post-college to my high weight, then down as much as 50 pounds over a one year period when I switched to a whole foods diet a few years ago, then slowly rising and falling within about a 15 pound range for the past few years. This makes it pretty easy for me to remember what I weighed during any given year. I touched 289 for a few days once LOL! the year I switched to a whole foods diet, but otherwise haven't seen the 280's since 1994. That's a long time.

My second reason has to do with clothes and clutter.

I started a big sorting-out project earlier this summer right before I started on low carb. I had half a dozen or so big boxes stored of perfectly nice (and often still with tags on) clothes that were anywhere from one size down to several sizes down from my starting sizes earlier this summer. Many I bought in the past couple years when I thought I would keep losing, some gifts that were too small, some things that hardly got worn before they got outgrown, etc.

So a few months ago I decided something needed to be done with these boxes. I drug out the boxes and began sorting through them... rounded up all the things that were out of style or I just wasn't really crazy about and gave them to charity and a few folks in need. That still left me with some large stacks of jeans, polo shirts, t shirts, dress shirts, khaki pants, etc that I still couldn't wear but would if I were smaller.

It was about this time that I started on Atkins. So then I really didn't want to pack the next size or so down and re-store them, since I hoped to get into them sooner rather than later. It was also going to be going from summer to fall in a couple of months, so I didn't want to pack up anything for fall, but if I lost enough pounds quickly enough, I also had some summer items in there I could wear through mid-fall. So other than a handful of things that were REALLY small, I didn't know WHAT to pack back up. Summer? Fall/winter? One size down? Two sizes down? A shirt that says XL but I think fit more like a 2x the few times I wore it? A shirt I think SHOULD fit in 20 more pounds but have never gotten into so I don't really know?
CHAOS! LOL!

So as a means to inspire me BECAUSE I HATE CLUTTER, I left all this stuff out, stacked neatly in open boxes, taking up floor space in my bedroom. I have had to walk past these several times a day for several months now, and I am right on the cusp of solidly moving down a shirt size and pant size.

I just can't hardly contain myself wanting the next 10 pounds plus to come off and my clothing sizes to change (I am currently wearing the "bigger" items of the next size down, but not many of them). Then I can start giving away the biggest clothes in my closet and replacing them with the jeans and shirts out of these open boxes cluttering up the bedroom, LOL!

Getting rid of clutter is a huge motivator for me. I like simplicity.

I also like the idea of testing out the carb limits before adding in all the other foods on the rung. I agree it simplifies the issue of knowing if your weight loss stopped due to a particular food item or just the increase in carbs.

Thanks everybody.

[msanjelpie]

Post a typical menu for the days when your carbs are the lowest...

[Aways2Go]

Oh, they AREN'T too low most days - I should have clarified that MOST days I struggle to stay AT 20 carbs without going over. It was just this particular day that I was going to be way under 20, and it made me wonder if that was an issue or what effect it had on Atkins dieters if it happened regularly.

I know myself enough to know that it will be a fairly rare occurance, LOL, but I have a scientific mindset and am always curious about how things work, LOL!

[Aways2Go]

But as an example, for one day, if I had some steak, a ground beef patty, an egg or two, maybe a string cheese for a snack, a very simple salad and some green beans or broccoli, and nothing much else for the day, I would probably stay very full and wind up pretty low on the carb count for the day.